Outdoor LED lighting saves more than 65% of electricity consumption

The streetlights or led lighting are part of the landscape of our towns and cities. Also of many sections of road with high density of traffic that are illuminated to facilitate the circulation during the night. In Spain we have 8.8 million light points, with an average power of 156 watts per point and 4,098 hours of annual use, which means an electricity consumption of 5,296 GWh / year – approximately 2% of national consumption – and a cost for municipalities of about 795 million euros per year.

Fortunately, technological development and innovation in lighting systems have made it possible to switch from luminaires, lamps and regulating equipment to more modern ones with a high potential for energy savings.

The new facilities no longer project the light to the sky, like many of the traditional street lamps, but to the streets that we tread, so that we use the public lighting of more efficient form and avoid the light pollution that had made us forget that the sky is full of stars.

In the first call for the aid program for the renovation of municipal outdoor LED lighting installations, which was closed in May 2016, 65 city councils were approved for 64.7 million euros. At the moment they are in the execution stage and will allow the 2.4 million citizens residing in these municipalities to have better light quality lighting and their city councils can save 8.4 million euros and 56,200 MWh of electricity.

There is already a second call in progress, endowed with an initial budget of 28.7 million and subsequently increased by 20 million euros more due to the success of the call, which will be open until April 2018. The goal is the same: continue with the complete or partial renovation of municipal LED outdoor lighting installations to reduce their final energy consumption and CO2 emissions. And we’re not talking about small savings, no. In fact, the actions eligible to obtain the aid contemplate a reduction of the electric consumption of at least 30%.

But the savings can be much greater thanks to LED technology, which has become dominant in the sector. In 97% of the proposals received in the first call included the replacement of traditional lamps with other LEDs. That simple gesture implies that the average power of the points of light to be changed is reduced from 156 to 58 W. Which means already a saving of 63%. To this should be added the additional savings of the hourly flow regulation systems, which are also foreseen in most cases. Adding both measures could lead to savings of between 65 and 80%.

The technological change brought about by the LEDs has been of such caliber that no other action of reforms of installations consuming of energy can offer similar figures of savings. A compelling reason to encourage all administrations to join the challenge of transforming the street lighting of their towns and cities. Contact us!